Demotics
quanta surpassed by penumbra
driven mad, the sea
its repeated horizon steering straight
down the canyon coral reef senita who blooms at night
monitor of
ocotillo curvature
where have you gone
my memory is an emission
photograph
rapid ball of light her skull lasting
a yellow glow of sodium means atoms are relaxing
the jackrabbit allows a fear of sand
in bed time is transferable and small
could become a tremor
a length of cloud with another
jelly-like
the pelvis appears
among deep-sea vent
combing the water for
our symbolon
conifer and magnolia consumed before desiccation
in a mud bed
cousin to the diatom our dimorphic
we all live at the river
the moon reduces to tides
Dune-field
to which we may attach a quay
oscillation for boat
or the desert’s kiss
all indivisible energy exists
Raga
minimal amount of music cut up
to its ecliptic pleasure
as the neutrino flies constantly through my flesh
re-arrange surrender
Pheromone
the honeybee signals danger from
a kiss
after fight or flight
my anabasis
kelp-forests and
olive-green limpets, petrel, pelagic
atoll, lipstick
pixie, fairy puke—
night-aquifer
water is why
the epiphytes or guest plant
paints chartreuse over stones, cedar, hand-
rails I hold on for dear life
marriage
the rarer just offshore arroyo
as perilune swallows
sea-level
sock-eye-less salmon
dead or diverted in sleep
what you don’t know,
quiet underneath
too wet for trees
fungi people / epiphyte
keep my sexless sex safe
humans hate darkness
to inspire people about the deep
ocean, we had to light it was a boundary
as he shut off the lamp
blurred my flagellum
_______________
Notes:
Demotic: Of ordinary people; demotic language or style (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
driven mad, the sea: Edmond Jabès, The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion, trans. Rosemarie Waldrop.
quanta: From quantum, 1. the amount required or desired 2. (in physics) a unit of quantity of energy proportional to frequency of radiation (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
penumbra: The partly shaded region around the shadow of an opaque body, especially around the total shadow of the moon or Earth in eclipse (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
senita: A desert flower.
ocotillo: A desert plant.
symbolon: Pieces of bone.
desiccation: From desiccate – to make quite dry, to dry out the moisture from in order to preserve it (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
diatom: A microscopic one-celled alga with a stony cell wall, existing in sea and fresh water and often forming fossil deposits (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
dimorphic: Occurring in two distinct form in the same species, individual, etc. (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.)
all indivisible energy exists: Misprision of the definition of quantum physics,
Scientific American, January, 2003.
ecliptic: The sun’s apparent path among stars during the year (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
anabasis: Military advance; ascent, walk-up (ODEE, C.T. Onions, Ed).
minimal amount of music…: From the liner notes of Gorécki’s Symphony of
Sorrowful Songs, Symphony No.3, cd recording, Royal Philharmonic, London.
petrel: A kind of seabird that flies far from land (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
lipstick pixie, fairy puke: The names of two varieties of epiphytic moss which grow in thick layers of dense forest indigenous to Pacific Northwest Temperate Rainforest zones.
epiphyte: A type of parasitic plant, fungi or other which attaches itself to and naturally grows on the exterior body of a host plant or tree.
perilune: The point in an object’s orbit around the moon where it is closest to the moon’s center (OAD, Eugene Ehrlich, Ed.).
water is why the epiphytes or guest plant: From an article on the geographical history of plants indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, National Geographic Magazine, Feb/March, 2003.
humans hate darkness…we had to light it: From an article on underwater photography National Geographic Magazine, Feb/March 2003.